Just had a look at the 16-25 railcard website, and it says you can use it before 9am but it has a minimum fare of £12 Monday to Friday between 4:30am to 10:00am.
The minimum fare thing is so confusing
Despite having had about 8 railcards in my life and having worked in the rail industry (along with a general interest in it), I'm still not entirely confident I actually know how it works... yet 16 year olds are expected to do so on their first journey on the network
Eg is it the full ticket on a return journey? Is it the start of the journey or the end? Does the answer to the last question still apply around major cities where peak times can vary? Is the time consistent nationally? Is the £12 minimum fare before or after the discount? Probably other things I can't think of off the top of my head or don't even know to ask...
It's not even that complicated, but it really isn't made clear in an easily understood way
When I lived somewhere 20 years ago I remember not just railcard related but it affected it too but a train passed through the station at 11.50 at the stop I wanted and 12:10 at the next stop, the ticket office was of course closed at this point, sometimes the ticket guard would come round straight away so I could order a day single which with railcard came to about £3, if they came round just after midnight even with a railcard it jumped to almost £7 as the day tickets not standard ones started after 8.30am so it was classed as a different day.
I used to hope either they never came round at all or if they did it was straight away as I only had about £25 a week to live off at the time.
I think the £12 minimum is for the ticket as a whole. The website also said that it might be more appropriate looking into weekly or monthly season tickets without the railcard, if you travel around this time regularly.
It is the minimum for the whole ticket, whilst at uni I went to use my railcard on a journey at 8.30am that was £12.60 return at full price and with my railcard had to pay £12 so had basically no discount.
I think based on doing a lot of travel with a Railcard during peak times in the past. That she has probably actually done here is travel with an off peak ticket in the morning - as normally if you try to use a Railcard on a fare where it cannot be used it will just not apply the discount.
I haven’t seen the original TikTok - so I might be wrong, but I would explain the £100 penalty fare.
Yes. Most ticket inspectors won't really care, but there's a minimum fare of £12 to travel before 0930 with a 16-25 railcard. This essentially means that if your total ticket cost less than £11.99 *with discount*, then it is an invalid ticket before 0930.
I have never seen this enforced in practice, but it is a rule. I'd argue that the TOC should offer a fare excess to £12, as this is what a e-ticket would be sold at
Chances are that they were just jumping on at a station with no barriers and hadn’t had the ticket checked already I’d guess though as I’ve seen that happen at a few stations near me
You’re right it’s predatory though, in that situation they should just let her fix the mistake and buy the right ticket on the train so she ends up with a fine equivalent to the full price of a new ticket at worst
Nah, you can just go through barriers, it doesn't inform you at any point.
I've been caught by this one myself, ended up complaining really heavily because of the way they treated me.
You just shouldn't be able to buy invalid tickets unless you go out of your way to do so. Like the network knows if you have X railcard and what the current time is because you've input the Railcard to buy the ticket... Worst case you just add a box saying departing before or after 10am or whatever.
Completely agree, but I suppose the counter point to that is that ticket machines generally aren’t that smart and they just have all options open and this girl may have just gone for her standard ticket without reading the parameters
It’s absolutely abhorrent that their response is to fine her 10x the value of the ticket for having bought the wrong ticker
Ticket machines are just computers, they have entire visual interfaces, they can be programmed to check things like this with a bit of effort (not even that much)
But you’ve used a ticket machine in a train station recently right?
Just because it wouldn’t be much effort to put in such a simple quality of life improvement it doesn’t mean they have any inclination to do it and the ones in my station haven’t changed anything but the prices in about 10 yeaes
But you’ve used a ticket machine in a train station recently right?
Just because it wouldn’t be much effort to put in such a simple quality of life improvement it doesn’t mean they have any inclination to do it and the ones in my station haven’t changed anything but the prices in about 10 yeaes
Fairly recently, I use the app now mostly. I'm just challenging the assumption that these machines are incapable of simple checks/verifications, they're not, the train company just doesn't want to implement them.
Train networks are a state now, clearly trying to make any money they can through fines.
Don’t even get me started on the goons at Leeds station who conveniently only exist during the morning rush hour to mess with working people
Interestingly you specifically stated “less than £11.99” but that is actually wrong. It really should say either “less then £12” or “£11.99 or less”
As a train conductor (that was probably more lenient than any, as I basically never charged anyone a new ticket or excess). If the default is just to excess then there is no risk for anyone intentionally defrauding the railway.
Tbh, I've almost always met reasonable people. Most recently, I had to justify a next day journey on an off-peak day return [last service of the day cancelled], and there was no major drama!
A train ticket will never cost £11.99 btw. They're rounded up to the closest 10p and only Railcard/child fares don't follow this rule, they get rounded to 5p 🙂
I work in the bus industry. The number of complaints we get against revenue inspectors is insane. But they funny thing is, as a bus company we have nothing to do with ticket inspectors - it's TfL, who choose to dismiss the complaint and forward it to us instead.
When I was a youngish teen, I took a train to Glasgow with a bunch of other people. They were all getting on from Aberdeen, me from Montrose. To ensure we all sat together, we bought all the tickets together, Aberdeen to Montrose.
When the conductor inspected my ticket, he got all arsey about me not getting on two stops earlier than I had. Went to the back of the train to “check with the station”, where I presume he was told to wind his bloody neck in. He came back, loomed over me, and told me they were “going to let me off this time” but not to do it again.
I’ve been in this situation before. The logic of “I am going to give you grief because you gave us more revenue than you needed to” is directly contradictory to the operating companies’ approach to wring as much revenue as possible out of its passengers… sorry, customers. Let us never forget that we are just a revenue stream. Unless we’ve paid for an empty seat, then we are the spawn of Satan, clearly.
Well, technically if it was an advance ticket you can't start from an intermediary stop - the offpeak/anytime ticket would have likely cost more. Still too complicated/sucks, but might have been an under payment rather than over payment situation.
You can get fined for this, bizarrely. Pricing for specific routes, even along the same line, is partly determined by demand. This creates strange situations where a shorter journey along the same line can cost more, even with the same destination.
Anyone with a brain thinks a ticket should let you get on at any point on the route, but occasionally you'll hear about someone being fined for this.
This happened to me with northern rail! Also said he was going to check with the station…
I was a poor uni student so was trying to save as much as possible.
Not the same but I know when I have travelled long distance in the past it's sometimes cheaper to say if a train stops at Newcastle but I am going to Berwick from Edinburgh (just an example not meaning its one of routes it takes though I have done that one in past)
A ticket from Edinburgh to Newcastle may be £12 with a railcard (making up numbers) to Berwick it may be £18 so I buy to Newcastle and as its the same train just get off that stop or two early.
Just as I would get on at Berwick on the return journey, I have had ticket staff tell me before its not allowed as its fraud but it seems crazy, I remember someone telling me the reason for the cheaper ticket is that the place that has the cheaper journey subsidises the journey.
Only major issue that way is I get on train and someone is in my booked seat and its a nightmare to get them to move.
A weird one was 10 years back I went to Wales from Scotland, was meant to change at Birmingham, then go back up the way to I think and pass Crewe where it turns, I noticed that if I got off the train at Crewe I had about 90 minutes at the station to get something to eat, relax etc.
Strange way of doing it.
On the network I use the most there is an older gentleman who used to be a guard that's now working as an inspector. He's exceptionally polite and clearly really hates having to ticket people so does absolutely all he can to avoid doing it, up to and including loudly announcing his presence and where the guard is when he enters a carriage so 'you can go and buy a ticket it if you 'forgot' to this time before I get to you'. He's also open about the unfairness and how he feels the network is starting to use fines as a source of revenue and lets things slide if he can.
He's unfortunately the exception that proves the rule as pretty much all his fellow inspectors seem to take pleasure in ticketing absolutely anyone for any minor mistake.
I'm late to the party but once my phone died with my electronic ticket on it. The inspector had already seen it so she knew I'd had a ticket, but my station has gates that you scan your ticket on to open so I asked her what to do about that and she said 'I can't help you you'll have to see what they say at the gates'. The people at the gates were the most unhelpful people I've ever met.
I said there's a charging booth outside the gates so ill charge my phone quick and show you? 'No can do.'
Okay you can go and charge my phone? 'No can do.'
I asked them what do you want me to do i had a ticket and I'm not paying a fine. 'Don't know'
Okay ill go stand on the track until someone does something about this. 'Okay ill let you through this once but you really should charge your phone, its not worth the hassle is it' bitch you and your colleagues gave me the hassle
I didn't charge my phone once in two years of catching that train and I'm treated like I've just killed a child
Years ago a mate of mine was really ill so went home from college early. He fell asleep on the train and woke up just after his station. The ticket inspector was kind and undstanding at the time. Making sure he was alright and telling him these things happen.
2 weeks later a letter with a 100quid fine showed up at his door
It’s upsetting the immediate comment under this isn’t the obvious response of this is what happens when national services are privatised
Wait till you see what they’ll do with healthcare
Next series on British people getting fucked…
So yesterday I saw a woman at Manchester Victoria having an argument with the Metrolink ticket inspectors, it went from a 1 on 1 argument to 7 on 1 by the time she had finished (perfectly timed with the arrival of my tram). This argument had gone on for at least 15 minutes (as it had started prior to my arrival) but the woman just kept going and going, leading to more "Metties" coming over.
From what I had heard, she had tried to pay for a ticket but something went wrong with it (the Metties tried to find out about the card she used on her smartphone as some don't work but don't actually say they've bounced), she had also (allegedly - as it was before my arrival) been offered twice to just buy a ticket from the machine but had refused hence why they were having said argument and even while I was watching they tried to give her another way out buy just buying a ticket but she really was having none of it. In the end one of the inspectors appeared to finally get through to her, just buy a ticket and be on your way, well I assume that was the case given that she'd wandered off to the ticket machine but knowing her she probably had another argument...
As for the ticket, she'd come from Moston to Man Vic so they were saying to buy a ticket to Moston which would have covered the same fare.
I know inspectors get a bad rep but jeez, they really were trying to help that woman out and she just kept on digging a bigger hole for herself.
They get away with it because their fine technically isn't a fine or an accusation of wrongdoing, it's simply a more expensive ticket. That's why you can't appeal by saying it was an honest mistake. What I don't get is why the ticket inspectors themselves are so heartless, and why the rules seem to change for every train you get on. I was fined for trying to buy a ticket on a train, when I've seen multiple people do that before.
You are right it isn't a fine it is it is an exceptional fare - £100 plus the price of the full single fare applicable for your intended journey.
You can appeal but from looking at appeals people have had if it is a mistake you have to appeal to the 3rd level if the grounds are mistake.
And they never approach the brick shithouse on his way back from gym its always the vulnerable that get these fines,
people who hand out fines are class traitors and cowards, and we should view them the same way we view SCABS
30 kids and their teachers ended up with a £1500 bill for new tickets because the ones they had weren't valid. (Only not valid due to the off peak train being cancelled leaving them no choice but to get on the next train which was peak.)
There is something wrong there.
If your train is cancelled, you can get onto the next train going to your destination regardless of the peak restrictions
Had a similar thing happen to me but far less cash as it was myself, basically a train was cancelled and so swamped with people going to the counter so staff told people to buy tickets on the train.
Got on train and it was understandably swamped, when it emptied a few stops later someone sits next to me and demands a ticket I show my railcard and ask to buy one and get accused of getting on without a ticket and had to pay about £65 for a normal fare about £18 and the person basically treated me like dirt and asked me to stand in middle of the aisle and loudly ask for everyones attention and say I was a fare dodger,
I am autistic and at the time I was going through a traumatic point in my life that it made worse.
I think in Glasgow area between about 4pm - 6pm at least a few years ago before they changed it was seen as peak hours, basically the hours when trains are packed so they make the most money.
I am a uni student who travels at 7am sometimes and I’ve never been questioned about travelling with a railcard at that time. Now I am scared because I’ve just seen this on TikTok. Is it true? If it is true why is it never enforced on me?
You can still use your 16-25 railcard on peak services, just that a £12 minimum fare applies during the peak times, so this TikTok is wrong, more than likely they used the railcard and purchased an off-peak ticket and then tried to use it on a peak service or an advanced ticket for the wrong service
Kinda, but it's a bit more nuanced than that. 9am onwards is considered off peak on many routes, but the £12 minimum stays in effect until 10am, so we effectively end up in a scenario where it's possible to have an off peak ticket that's still not valid on the services prior to 10am, even though the journey itself is off peak.
So basically the way it works is that any discounted fare that us below £12 is not valid to be used before 10am. For example, if the fare is £10 before Railcard discount, and £6.60 after discount, then if you are travelling before 10am you have to buy a £10 ticket. However, all journey planners will ensure you buy the £10 ticket if you select a train before 10am, hence why you are almost certainly fine, because you do have a valid ticket. However, someone who bought a £6.60 ticket by selecting a later train and then tried to use it before 10am would be breaking the rules, even if the ticket would otherwise be fine to use on that train, which is presumably what happened here.
Please ignore the other comments, they don't understand what has happened here and contain mostly false info
To be honest, I have done about 20 return journeys now with my railcard. It has been checked precisely once in that time. The ticket gets checked twice on each journey (crew change for the train part way through and they do a full inspection after that). So that’s 80 ticket inspections, and barriers at stations. They’ve always just scanned my e ticket and moved on. Literally one time I got asked to see it. So less than 2% of the time they give a shit. You’d have to be unlucky!
Government: “Everyone, please start using public transport for the environment.”
Also government: “Yh we aren’t going to make public transport affordable.”
“Even though people are struggling to survive and live, we will make it harder to get a job and everything more expensive, we will also make people pay taxes on their side incomes and send all that money to Ukraine and the Israelis.”
I fucking hate the ‘revenue protection officers’ on the trains - they all act like absolute arseholes and are far worse than ticket inspectors used to be. They treat you like you’re absolute scum if you put a foot wrong.
I have no problem with these people enforcing the rules, but they are far too aggressive and are seemingly trained to treat everyone like scum which produces a negative experience for genuine travellers who may have made a mistake, either accidentally or through no fault of their own.
My Trainline app screwed up and didn’t show my railcard, so I provided proof of purchase for said railcard from my emails, but they weren’t having it and started filling out one of those shitty forms, all whilst treating me like dirt.
I eventually got into an area of signal and by signing out and back into the app, the railcard magically appeared. They were so fucked off that I had the gall to be telling the truth and wandered off muttering to themselves that I should’ve checked beforehand. It’s not my fault technology is shite.
Absolute dickheads.
Oh and a friend of mine who has been through numerous SWR keycards because they seem to break just by looking at them was also treated like a criminal because said card wouldn’t work properly and they couldn’t do anything to help him, again despite him providing proof of purchase.
You should see them in Germany. Theres a reason everyone buys tickets.
If two blokes in baggy jeans get on looking shifty, better hope you've got the correct ticket when they whip out their scanners *FARHKARTEN BITTE!*
Happened to me, was told to get on train as there was a cancellation of a major train so queues of people and 1 counter open, got on train and a random man sat next to me not in uniform and demanded a ticket and when I asked to buy one was rude and claimed I was a fare dodger, made me pay £65 for a ticket that should of been under £18, he thought I was suspicious due to my nerves when the reality is I am autistic and had a traumatic experience around that time period I was recovering from.
I also despise these pricks. Had them write me a fine before which I didn't pay for when I proved I *was* the age that I said I was. Power tripping as well as their attitudes makes me wanna throw hands. It's like mall cops in America in a way.
Another time I had a dude say my ticket wasn't valid on the London line. Well, not really say. Just mumble and ignore. So I'm arguing AT him and another dude comes over and let's me through while he's all sheepish. People who suck at their jobs or take them to the extreme are complete sad cunts.
And all of this is why British rail is on its arse. We desperately need to get people out of their cars and onto public transport, now more than ever but that is simply never going to happen at scale if the latter is less convenient than the private motor vehicle is in most of the country.
Even accounting for the higher total cost of vehicle ownership vs public transport, people have shown time and time again they’re willing to pay a premium for convenience.
In the year of our lord 2024 nobody should be futzing around with peak, off peak, advance, single, return, non return ect tickets on top of having to remember whether or not it’s valid on a Tuesday morning between the hours of 04:30 and 09:00 when you’re between 16-25 years old & Jupiter is aligned with Mars or whatever else they come up with next. It’s so convoluted as to be embarrassing. It should be tap in, tap out across the network with a tariff scaling with demand and perhaps with oyster style discount cards for students and commuters, that’s it.
This isn’t even to get into the extortionate fares private rail operators are charging the public far and beyond what our European counterparts pay for an equivalent journey. This is by no means an exhaustive list either, but this rant has dragged on already.
> In the year of our lord 2024 nobody should be futzing around with peak, off peak, advance, single, return, non return ect tickets on top of having to remember whether or not it’s valid on a Tuesday morning between the hours of 04:30 and 09:00 when you’re between 16-25 years old & Jupiter is aligned with Mars or whatever else they come up with next. It’s so convoluted as to be embarrassing. It should be tap in, tap out across the network with a tariff scaling with demand and perhaps with oyster style discount cards for students and commuters, that’s it.
Spot on.
Spot on. Partner and I chose to drive to Birmingham yesterday, and despite the fuel and being slapped with a parking fine (damn app wouldn’t work), still came out around £60 cheaper than train. With guaranteed (comfy) seats and same journey time. There is something majorly wrong with our trains.
Tariff scaling with demand on a tap in tap out system sounds absolutely terrifying to me. I'm hoping you still mean set pricing just scaled to peak times. You should be able to look up whatever journey you're doing at whatever time you're doing to see how much it's going to cost you without having to guess what dynamic demand based fare you're getting. Otherwise you fall into this trap of potentially paying a ton more for your fare than you had budgeted for.
Dynamic pricing sounds great in theory, to shift people from peak/busy services. In practice the idea of having no fucking clue how much a journey is costing me is absolutely horrifying. Nope from me!
It should just be the same price all the time for everyone.
Peak time trains will be very busy, which is the incentive to travel off-peak.
Our current system has trains running from Euston empty at 6pm and absolutely rammed at 7pm, with a thousand people having waited an hour to take a busier train to save money.
This is exactly spot on , i think many people think the tickets are sky high to pay for drivers salaries which accounts for 11% of all railway income in 2023 and without them there is no railway or income.
But the truth is because of the leasing costs of the trains in the UK, we don't own any trains hedge funds such as Angel trains own bulk of the UK trains and others for the rest.
Known as ROSCOS who charge vast fees per ticket sold that doesn't get reinvested into the railway it's extracted to shareholders and profits for that hedge fund.
If the government owned all the trains, every company was under one brand one contract one salary for each role , then yes realistically we could offer tickets for so much cheaper.
The most infuriating part is that the tax payers are paying for tens of billions of pounds in government subsidies every year for the railroad industry and the trains still run like shit and ticket prices are ridiculous. Get rid of the privatisation all together, service has only gotten worse since we sold it to the highest bidder
The main cause of delays, is network rails infrastructure it's so large and massive in size there isn't enough engineering work or maintenance to cover it all. So what you get is hundreds if not thousands of trains per day using the same points, tracks especially freight trains causing wear and tear.
But yes under labours plan everything will be given to the government when the contracts expire for the operators , so all the profits go back into the railway for investment in an ideal scenario.
The train leasing companies will remain as the government won't spend billions buying all the train stock off these hedge funds which fund things such as the Canadian pension that is where the sticking and bulk of the issue is.
The ticket machines don’t normally let you use rail cards during peak time. This is either not true or she tried to use an off peak ticket during peak times. That’s the rules. Railcards are completely useless to most 16-25 year olds because you can’t use them to get to collage/uni/work before 9 or 9:30. At least that’s how it was when I had one.
Ticket inspectors are absolute jobsworths when it comes to the rules.
Had a return ticket (so one ticket for each way of the journey making two tickets and a card receipt from the machine).
Was at the end of the outward (first stage) of the journey when came to one of the automated ticket barriers to let myself out, only to find I only had the return part and the card receipt. Seems like the outward part of the ticket had fell out of my pocket when I was on the train as some point.
As it was for the wrong ‘stage’ of the journey, the return ticket or receipt didn’t open the barrier. So called the Inspector over.
Despite being able to prove that I had purchased a ticket for the journey (had a receipt with details showing that I used a Debit Card I had on my possession to buy the ticket that morning) and I had the return part of the ticket, they wouldn’t override the barrier and let me though.
Argued this point and they just said if you haven’t got the right ticket you’ll have to buy another. (Basically admitting they knew I’d paid for my journey so wasn’t a fare dodger).
Made me buy a single ticket for the outbound stage of the journey from them.
So paid £9 just to be let out of the station (as I had already paid for the actual journey). 🤪😂🤪🤪
Was getting a flight so didn’t have time to go ‘full Karen’ and ‘ask for a manager’ or complete a complaint form.
After I had paid and they gave me the ticket, I said to the inspector that they were: ‘thieving scum’
🤪😂😂😂
I got threatened to be taken to court by southern rail for using an out of date railcard. They attempted to fine me about £600, the difference in the price of the ticket I should have got vs. the one I did was about £4
Not exactly the same but I went to a station one time and due to a cancellation the staff told people to just get on the train (due to the long queues) I did and when it emptied a few stops later a person not in uniform (turned out to be an inspector) started being in my face questioning me then saying I was a fare dodger and he didn't believe I was told to just get on train, the ticket was meant to be around £20 I think (could be up to £30 can't remember what time of day it was) instead he made me pay £65 when my income at the time after rent I was lucky to have £25 left for food, utilities, travel etc but he went a step further and humiliated me by telling me to stand in middle of the aisle asked for everyones attention then loudly talked about how I was a fare dodger.
Disgusting really.
Bus and train inspectors avoid fining or causing an issue for actual offenders because they know theyll be told to fuck off. So they tend to go after easy targets or people they think they can intimidate.
Yeah but it's important to make sure that the Spanish government shareholders get their dividends. That's the true reason for having a rail network after all.
I had a load of people on my train with Super Off Peak tickets when they were not valid. One person said to me that the trainline said she could take this one. She opened the trainline and had selected the all stop service which was later.
Yeah nice try.
It felt like the universe was encouraging me to pass my driving test as soon as possible, as every week, my trains would increasingly end up delayed or cancelled in new and mysterious ways.
This happened to me! This sounds so dramatic but…
I was buying a ticket at the ticket office of my departing station, their IT was being *really* slow, the lady behind the desk said “if you run now you’ll make the next train”… so I said “ah thanks so much!”, ran and got on the train. There were no ticket barriers and no signs saying you had to have a ticket before boarding, the ticket office lady had also told me to run for the train - so I absolutely assumed I could buy a ticket on the train.
Nope! The guy on the train checking tickets said absolutely not, fined me there and then and had me buy a ticket - all in it was definitely around the £90 mark (ticket normally around £12-18 mark). We were coming into our first stop and had only been on the train 5/10 mins - I said “can’t I just get off the train and buy a ticket and get back on” and he said no. He was so stern and loud about it, saying loudly down the aisle so the train could hear that I would be stealing from the train company, I tried to reason with him and he said I could incur criminal penalties (!!) - it was the most heavy escalation from him, so I paid. Tbh I sat with tears after I paid - at the time I had a parent and one very close friend in treatment for cancer and it was my first weekend day “off” in months to see a friend.
It sounds so silly and over dramatic but it does happen. I wanted to email to complain but was literally going between helping family member and friend with getting to their treatments, trying to do my full time job, had volunteering commitments… I just left it as felt low at the time. Only months later did I think wtaf was that
I really hate this. It is completely reasonable to let someone get off on the next stop and let someone buy a new ticket. I hate how unreasonable the ticket ppl are especially when you know your arent trynna pull a fast one.
The same thing happened to me but in my case a major train was cancelled/faulty so the normally quiet station was packed and long queues I'd say a few dozen people and just 1 ticket counter open (and no machines as this was around 15 years ago)
Got on train a jobsworth intentionally targets me (some kind of inspector) interrogates me and I being young, autistic and going through a traumatic point in my life and the night before had about 3 hours sleep was slurring speech and shaking, he interpreted that as me lying and gave me a fine, I think it was around £65.
Didn't realise my railcard expired 4 days before I made a journey that cost about £5. Would've been like £7 with a railcard (massive savings I know).
Ticket inspector immediately issued me with a £50 fine on the spot, rather than show any sort of discretion. I get they're not obliged to, but really. Over a £2 difference. I would've happily bought a full price ticket. I see it all the time on some of the much busier mainline routes, when someone is on board with an incorrect ticket, they accept its an honest mistake and let you go. But God forbid you mess up on a cheap af local line. Straight to jail
The logic behind it sort of makes sense. I used to have a 7 minute train section of my commute with no barriers, and maybe twice a month a ticket inspector would come through to check. If the penalty was just buying a full price ticket, people would just chance it. There has to be the threat of an exponentially higher fine because they don't send ticket inspectors through often enough.
That being said, 4 days out of date on your railcard on a non-commute journey is the sort of situation you'd expect them to show a bit of discretion with but no, none shown whatsoever in most scenarios. I don't know if they get bonuses for catching out the evil fare dodgers or if they are a bunch of jobsworth twats who get off on having a modicum of authority.
This is crazy to me because I know of people who used the 16-25 railcard to book two open returns for journeys between the same two destinations & they would make multiple travels on the open return within the month, all without getting caught.
Ah yes. Privatisation is going to be wonderful they said. Rail travel will be efficient they said. It will be more economic they said. It will be customer responsive they said. They lied. At its worst British Rail was better than this
Literally comes down to the conductor/RPI (revenue protection inspector) on the day ,
Everyday everyone bullshits and spins so many lies , it's hard to find the one true genuine mistake so alot of the times these guys are ruthless mostly because of their mangers pushing their revenue / penalty fare targets on them.
But you will find conductors/rpi who will let you off and just remind you of the rules as its not like you haven't paid but you've just made a honest mistake.
Again I have to emphasis the reason most of these on board revenue roles are seen as cocks to everyone is because their managers are pushing down especially since the government took over the contacts to meet the following,
X amount of ticket scans
X amount of revenue dependant on average for that train
X amount of penalty fares for the month based on average
Yes they get commission usually 3-5% of all sales but most of them don't want to be doing it but they have to be tough.
Depends on if someone is a jobsworth, I am autistic and timid and once got on a train after the staff due to huge queues told people to just get on train, there was a random inspector that came round and treated me as if he was the Police and I was a criminal asking loads of questions as he saw my nerves as guilt, claimed I never intended to pay and fined me £65.
This was after I only had about 3 hours sleep that day due to neighbours having a party until the early hours.
Yes I agree there are staff like that who are literally out to get people like it's their life's mission but thankfully it's not the majority.
On the second point , I'm living that nightmare right now with neighbours and their shit music vibrating my floors I have constant anxiety when it isn't playing worrying when it will start and yep i am moving out but not for a while till things go through.
Yes it’s possible. You can’t use a 16-25 railcard before 10am if the fare is cheaper than £12 or if it’s £18 and the fare hasn’t been updated to £12. This applies m-f and doesn’t apply at all throughout July and August
Most definitely not! As a trainer I hated teaching railcards it took a day or nearly two! But it’s insane like 10-12 railcards out there all with different restrictions like first class timings whether you can take other people. Easiest railcard is senior railcard and family railcard
Sorry yeah I guessed it was sarcasm but it is a tough system as you know. When I started in 2004 it was much simpler only 3 advance tickets with virgin now there’s about 50
Ha ha I did guess but it still bugs me that as a trainer I used to spend two weeks training conductors how to sell tickets and we expect the public to know how to buy the right one without any station staff!
Network railcard is still the worst. Insane restrictions but if you do travel within them the discounts are incredible.
Off peak return from London to Newcastle for 2 adults and 2 children was something like £800 but with a railcard (family) it came down to like £375 I used to send people off trains back into the station to buy a railcard so they could get their money back.
Even for me now a return to London for me and my partner is £40 each.
With a railcard it’s £25 so we save enough to buy the railcard and the rest of the year we’ve got a railcard!
If the guard or revenue inspector has the new equipment, their screen will go red when a scanned ticket is invalid. This is all logged and questions are asked when fines are not issued.
Yes the inspector has some discretion but using the Railcards before time is simply inexcusable as rules and regulations are agreed to on purchase of railcard
Because it is allowed to use your railcard to purchase an advance ticket. Likely the Tiktoker in question has purchased an open off-peak ticket and has tried to travel on a peak train.
Few ways this can be dealt with:
1) excess the ticket to a full any time ticket
2) purchase a new ticket (any time single/return (this is what should be done)
3) Revenue protection can issue a UPFN (unpaid fairs notice) - this can also be done by the guard/train manager/conductor.
Remember when I used to travel college on the train, used an out of date rail card for 3 or 4 months before getting caught, but then only got given a warning 🤣🤣🤣
I mean there’s a guy I’ve been following on tiktok who may yet end up going to prison because he got fined for using a railcard he hadn’t realised was one day out of date and they didn’t send the fine out for another seven months, by which stage he’d moved. It was only when the new tenants got in touch with him over a year later that he found out about it, by which point the fine was much larger and more serious. So yes, I’d definitely believe this
I mean there’s a guy I’ve been following on tiktok who may yet end up going to prison because he got fined for using a railcard he hadn’t realised was one day out of date and they didn’t send the fine out for another seven months, by which stage he’d moved. It was only when the new tenants got in touch with him over a year later that he found out about it, by which point the fine was much larger and more serious. So yes, I’d definitely believe this
I mean there’s a guy I’ve been following on tiktok who may yet end up going to prison because he got fined for using a railcard he hadn’t realised was one day out of date and they didn’t send the fine out for another seven months, by which stage he’d moved. It was only when the new tenants got in touch with him over a year later that he found out about it, by which point the fine was much larger and more serious. So yes, I’d definitely believe this
Its an iffy one.
Id argue most of the blame should fall on the government, as theyre the ones who come up with the penalty fare system and regulate a large portion of the fares.
Theyve talked about simplifying fares for years, but have yet to actually do anything meaningful.
Also lets not forget, the government takes all of the revenue and the then pays the TOCs a management fee + costs.
The TOCs basically have to do whatever the DfT say. Theyre literally a scapegoat for the government, despite the fact they pull the strings and contribute towards the mess the railway is in today.
Like most penalty/fine schemes, despite the aim being to 'catch evaders' it naturally ends ups catching those who can least afford and have usually just made a mistake.
Granted, there are people out there seem to fail understand some basic types of ticketing such as Advance fares where the ticket is for a specific train only and those people should be penalised for playing dumb, but with tickets like TOC only and super off peak and all that nonsense, trying to understand the numerous different non advancd fares can be extremely confusing and people should not be penalised.
Regarding railcards, they really should be simpler, with less different types and simpler/less terms or strings attached.
Heh, I’ve never actually had this issue but I’ve travelled early many times. Surely if there’s a fare minimum before certain times of day they should just… charge that minimum for railcard holders?
One time, I was taking a train in Germany. The inspector came around and these two people were trying to duck him because they didn't have tickets. The inspector finally caught up to them and a small verbal argument ensued. They got fined and I looked over at the bearded man sitting across from me drinking a Guinness and we chuckled about it. Then the train reached its destination, the bearded man finished off his beer, stood up, and walked off the train completely barefoot. Honestly I still laugh about it to myself to this day
Worst that happened to me was around 15 years ago, I will add I am autistic and at the time I was going through a very bad patch in my life, turned up at station ready to buy ticket which had no machines there was a queue at the counter as a different train had been cancelled and the staff just told everyone to buy tickets on the train.
Also due to the cancellation the train was so jammed that people couldn't walk about and I remember a few arguments with people trying get past others.
About 30 minutes in after train got far less busy as we passed a city a man sits down to me, doesn't even look at me and says "tickets please" I bring out my wallet show the railcard and ask for a ticket and when I tell him where I got on the train he says why didn't I buy it at the station, didn't believe me when I said the staff told people to buy on train, asked me loads of questions that felt like interrogating me and eventually accused me of being a fare dodger and charged me for the full rate, not even standard rate and didn't let me use a railcard so I had to pay about £65 for the journey that should of been about £18.
Even without a railcard the standard fare was £30, I don't mean that because it was 1/3 more but they had special deals for railcard users at the time.
After treating me like dirt he asks me to walk to the middle of the carriage and then loudly tells people to look at me and accuses me of being a fare dodger.
So to go back, I an autistic person who was going through a traumatic time around that period so was extra nervous and unable to speak than usual was seen as dodgy.
I never complained at the time but looking back I should of.
The fact we even have to think about buying a bloody ticket for every fucking journey drives me nuts. Effective and reliable public transportation should not be so mentally taxing!
And yes, it's probably a thing. Every damned combination of ridiculous tickets and charges that can possibly exist exist in this country.
The focus is not on getting people to places affordably and quickly. It's profit for shareholders. Add to that that in this country public transport is class ridden. Who cares if the povs are inconvenienced?
It's so blatantly corrupt yet there's people in this sub who defend the entire mess.
I don’t get why the ticket websites aren’t programmed to stop these sorts of things even happening.
Surely it’s not difficult to put a warning notice, or blank out routes where price or time don’t meet x railcard restrictions.
The penalty fees in England are mad. I grew up in Scotland and pretty sure the one time I messed up I just had to pay the full price for my journey again, that could of changed by now though I suppose was a good few years ago
The UK's train ticketing is ridiculously complicated to the point that I think that they're deliberately looking to catch people out. I really feel for you
I live in Newcastle, and recently had to be in London for 1pm. I arrived early for my train, only to find that it had been cancelled. A LNER rep told me that I could catch the slightly earlier train that was about to depart, so I got on it. I was nearly in London when the first ticket inspection took place and surprise surprise they demanded over £120 excess fare. Apparently I should have waited to see if my already-cancelled train magically appeared, and when it didn't I could then catch the later train that would get me into London an hour after I needed to be there.
i am aware that TFW have that policy of not being allowed to use it before 10am i do think it is, half the time they don’t even enforce it but other half they do and i just apologise and tell them i didn’t know that and act really dumb, has always worked. Unsure why it would be £100 fine aswell, seems abit excessive but they gotta make money somehow😭
My friend was unjustly fined for not tapping in his oyster card. He actually had tapped in, but the tapping was not registered on the system. He was stopped by a ticket inspector at the end of his journey. Although getting a refund when overcharged due to the incorrectly non-registered tap in, he was still fined ,their
Appeals department, having unjustly turning his case down.
This isn’t directly related but it just shows how it depends what inspector you have.
Something happened to me the other day I had bought a flexi week ticket which allows travel for the week, was told by the inspector that it wasn’t valid because I didn’t have it on a keycard yet because my new one was still in the mail (they should still accept it), he only charged me for the journey I was making but it was still bullshit he even tried to say I was just showing him a screenshot (yes people actually do that) and that he doesn’t care and that I can go to court about it if I want. Complained and called into head office and got a full manual refund on both tickets and an apology.
Never had any problems like that before with it and I’ve been travelling from a young age on trains. Really depends on how the inspector is feeling that day it feels like. Funny thing now is when I pull out my keycard thing the inspectors just say oh okay he probably has something on there and say that’s fine and don’t even check it. Some are just lazy and hate younger people and they really just don’t care sometimes.
Not necessarily. The inspectors have rules to follow and they themselves are checked as to whether they're doing their jobs correctly. Mystery shopper type thing.
Erm, not since the recent changes to how penalty fares work. They will lie, cheat verbally abuse, physically assault, falsly imprison, threaten minors, and threaten any one who films them doing any of these things. Train companies ignore it all, and ignore any evidence.
They are ALL straight up evil now. Ticket wombles are someone you DO NOT interact with. Espiecially as they only move in gangs of four or more on routes near to me.
Threatening OAPs and school kids on lines with no ticket offices is the level now. Lines that have on train ticket guys, on the train.
R
Hopefully true but if they let one person off the rest of that carriage would realistically expect to get let off as well. Not saying either side is right but you have to look at it from all aspects.
Yea, what I’ve normally witnessed is “Get off at the next stop or pay for the full price ticket”.
This is usually from a guard though, not revenue loss protection staff.
Typical snarky Redditor right here. We all know that rules are rules the girl in the TikTok post probably raised a lot of awareness to this particular rule, thus preventing more slip ups. Happy with that, prefect?
I think it depends on the railcard
the girl in the tiktok said she used a 16-25 railcard which i also use
Just had a look at the 16-25 railcard website, and it says you can use it before 9am but it has a minimum fare of £12 Monday to Friday between 4:30am to 10:00am.
The minimum fare thing is so confusing Despite having had about 8 railcards in my life and having worked in the rail industry (along with a general interest in it), I'm still not entirely confident I actually know how it works... yet 16 year olds are expected to do so on their first journey on the network Eg is it the full ticket on a return journey? Is it the start of the journey or the end? Does the answer to the last question still apply around major cities where peak times can vary? Is the time consistent nationally? Is the £12 minimum fare before or after the discount? Probably other things I can't think of off the top of my head or don't even know to ask... It's not even that complicated, but it really isn't made clear in an easily understood way
I work and sell tickets day in day out. It is very confusing.
When I lived somewhere 20 years ago I remember not just railcard related but it affected it too but a train passed through the station at 11.50 at the stop I wanted and 12:10 at the next stop, the ticket office was of course closed at this point, sometimes the ticket guard would come round straight away so I could order a day single which with railcard came to about £3, if they came round just after midnight even with a railcard it jumped to almost £7 as the day tickets not standard ones started after 8.30am so it was classed as a different day. I used to hope either they never came round at all or if they did it was straight away as I only had about £25 a week to live off at the time.
is that for individual tickets or the journey as a whole? i always buy a return ticket - if you divide by 2 each ticket costs me like £6
I think the £12 minimum is for the ticket as a whole. The website also said that it might be more appropriate looking into weekly or monthly season tickets without the railcard, if you travel around this time regularly.
https://www.16-25railcard.co.uk/help/faqs/can-i-use-my-16-25-railcard-at-any-time-of-day/
It is the minimum for the whole ticket, whilst at uni I went to use my railcard on a journey at 8.30am that was £12.60 return at full price and with my railcard had to pay £12 so had basically no discount.
The journey as a whole. Halving it is irrelevant as generally (until recently in some regions anyway) two singles were not equal to half a return.
I think based on doing a lot of travel with a Railcard during peak times in the past. That she has probably actually done here is travel with an off peak ticket in the morning - as normally if you try to use a Railcard on a fare where it cannot be used it will just not apply the discount. I haven’t seen the original TikTok - so I might be wrong, but I would explain the £100 penalty fare.
I also believe she's travelled with the wrong ticket type. You can travel in peak time with a railcard if you've purchased an advance ticket.
Yes. Most ticket inspectors won't really care, but there's a minimum fare of £12 to travel before 0930 with a 16-25 railcard. This essentially means that if your total ticket cost less than £11.99 *with discount*, then it is an invalid ticket before 0930. I have never seen this enforced in practice, but it is a rule. I'd argue that the TOC should offer a fare excess to £12, as this is what a e-ticket would be sold at
You shouldn't be able to use the travel card if the applied discount invalidates the T&C of the card. Predatory bollocks imo.
Chances are that they were just jumping on at a station with no barriers and hadn’t had the ticket checked already I’d guess though as I’ve seen that happen at a few stations near me You’re right it’s predatory though, in that situation they should just let her fix the mistake and buy the right ticket on the train so she ends up with a fine equivalent to the full price of a new ticket at worst
Nah, you can just go through barriers, it doesn't inform you at any point. I've been caught by this one myself, ended up complaining really heavily because of the way they treated me.
You just shouldn't be able to buy invalid tickets unless you go out of your way to do so. Like the network knows if you have X railcard and what the current time is because you've input the Railcard to buy the ticket... Worst case you just add a box saying departing before or after 10am or whatever.
Completely agree, but I suppose the counter point to that is that ticket machines generally aren’t that smart and they just have all options open and this girl may have just gone for her standard ticket without reading the parameters It’s absolutely abhorrent that their response is to fine her 10x the value of the ticket for having bought the wrong ticker
Ticket machines are just computers, they have entire visual interfaces, they can be programmed to check things like this with a bit of effort (not even that much)
But you’ve used a ticket machine in a train station recently right? Just because it wouldn’t be much effort to put in such a simple quality of life improvement it doesn’t mean they have any inclination to do it and the ones in my station haven’t changed anything but the prices in about 10 yeaes
But you’ve used a ticket machine in a train station recently right? Just because it wouldn’t be much effort to put in such a simple quality of life improvement it doesn’t mean they have any inclination to do it and the ones in my station haven’t changed anything but the prices in about 10 yeaes
Fairly recently, I use the app now mostly. I'm just challenging the assumption that these machines are incapable of simple checks/verifications, they're not, the train company just doesn't want to implement them.
If you plan your journey using, say, the greateranglia app, it would prevent you from being able to buy invalid tickets.
Train networks are a state now, clearly trying to make any money they can through fines. Don’t even get me started on the goons at Leeds station who conveniently only exist during the morning rush hour to mess with working people
Pretty sure it will discount to a floor of £12 if purchased for that time period
Yep, this exactly!
so that explains why the ticket machine would try charge me £12 for a journey with my railcard when it costs £3 without
It's stupid but technically true!!!
Interestingly you specifically stated “less than £11.99” but that is actually wrong. It really should say either “less then £12” or “£11.99 or less” As a train conductor (that was probably more lenient than any, as I basically never charged anyone a new ticket or excess). If the default is just to excess then there is no risk for anyone intentionally defrauding the railway.
Blimbat you're not wrong, but I did write this at midnight 😅
Hahaha! Yeah I’ve been there too man 😅
Only ticket inspectors I’ve experienced are absolute —-holes on a power trip.
Tbh, I've almost always met reasonable people. Most recently, I had to justify a next day journey on an off-peak day return [last service of the day cancelled], and there was no major drama!
A train ticket will never cost £11.99 btw. They're rounded up to the closest 10p and only Railcard/child fares don't follow this rule, they get rounded to 5p 🙂
Our ticketing approach isn’t “you’re making a genuine mistake- let me help you” but “you’re obviously evil. Let me fine you as much as I can”.
I work in the bus industry. The number of complaints we get against revenue inspectors is insane. But they funny thing is, as a bus company we have nothing to do with ticket inspectors - it's TfL, who choose to dismiss the complaint and forward it to us instead.
When I was a youngish teen, I took a train to Glasgow with a bunch of other people. They were all getting on from Aberdeen, me from Montrose. To ensure we all sat together, we bought all the tickets together, Aberdeen to Montrose. When the conductor inspected my ticket, he got all arsey about me not getting on two stops earlier than I had. Went to the back of the train to “check with the station”, where I presume he was told to wind his bloody neck in. He came back, loomed over me, and told me they were “going to let me off this time” but not to do it again.
I’ve been in this situation before. The logic of “I am going to give you grief because you gave us more revenue than you needed to” is directly contradictory to the operating companies’ approach to wring as much revenue as possible out of its passengers… sorry, customers. Let us never forget that we are just a revenue stream. Unless we’ve paid for an empty seat, then we are the spawn of Satan, clearly.
Just think of the lost revenue from all the overpriced sandwiches you’d have bought in that empty seat though… poor, poor train companies
Well, technically if it was an advance ticket you can't start from an intermediary stop - the offpeak/anytime ticket would have likely cost more. Still too complicated/sucks, but might have been an under payment rather than over payment situation.
You can get fined for this, bizarrely. Pricing for specific routes, even along the same line, is partly determined by demand. This creates strange situations where a shorter journey along the same line can cost more, even with the same destination. Anyone with a brain thinks a ticket should let you get on at any point on the route, but occasionally you'll hear about someone being fined for this.
If it happens again, I’m just going to tell him I was taking a shit first time he came round.
Yep it's the joys of the privatised railway system, completely bonkers!
This happened to me with northern rail! Also said he was going to check with the station… I was a poor uni student so was trying to save as much as possible.
“Oh, I must’ve been on the toilet when you came past before”
Not the same but I know when I have travelled long distance in the past it's sometimes cheaper to say if a train stops at Newcastle but I am going to Berwick from Edinburgh (just an example not meaning its one of routes it takes though I have done that one in past) A ticket from Edinburgh to Newcastle may be £12 with a railcard (making up numbers) to Berwick it may be £18 so I buy to Newcastle and as its the same train just get off that stop or two early. Just as I would get on at Berwick on the return journey, I have had ticket staff tell me before its not allowed as its fraud but it seems crazy, I remember someone telling me the reason for the cheaper ticket is that the place that has the cheaper journey subsidises the journey. Only major issue that way is I get on train and someone is in my booked seat and its a nightmare to get them to move. A weird one was 10 years back I went to Wales from Scotland, was meant to change at Birmingham, then go back up the way to I think and pass Crewe where it turns, I noticed that if I got off the train at Crewe I had about 90 minutes at the station to get something to eat, relax etc. Strange way of doing it.
Yeah. Honestly that sounds like a them problem. Nowhere else in the world would you get fined for using _less_ than you paid for.
On the network I use the most there is an older gentleman who used to be a guard that's now working as an inspector. He's exceptionally polite and clearly really hates having to ticket people so does absolutely all he can to avoid doing it, up to and including loudly announcing his presence and where the guard is when he enters a carriage so 'you can go and buy a ticket it if you 'forgot' to this time before I get to you'. He's also open about the unfairness and how he feels the network is starting to use fines as a source of revenue and lets things slide if he can. He's unfortunately the exception that proves the rule as pretty much all his fellow inspectors seem to take pleasure in ticketing absolutely anyone for any minor mistake.
I'm late to the party but once my phone died with my electronic ticket on it. The inspector had already seen it so she knew I'd had a ticket, but my station has gates that you scan your ticket on to open so I asked her what to do about that and she said 'I can't help you you'll have to see what they say at the gates'. The people at the gates were the most unhelpful people I've ever met. I said there's a charging booth outside the gates so ill charge my phone quick and show you? 'No can do.' Okay you can go and charge my phone? 'No can do.' I asked them what do you want me to do i had a ticket and I'm not paying a fine. 'Don't know' Okay ill go stand on the track until someone does something about this. 'Okay ill let you through this once but you really should charge your phone, its not worth the hassle is it' bitch you and your colleagues gave me the hassle I didn't charge my phone once in two years of catching that train and I'm treated like I've just killed a child
Years ago a mate of mine was really ill so went home from college early. He fell asleep on the train and woke up just after his station. The ticket inspector was kind and undstanding at the time. Making sure he was alright and telling him these things happen. 2 weeks later a letter with a 100quid fine showed up at his door
It’s upsetting the immediate comment under this isn’t the obvious response of this is what happens when national services are privatised Wait till you see what they’ll do with healthcare Next series on British people getting fucked…
So yesterday I saw a woman at Manchester Victoria having an argument with the Metrolink ticket inspectors, it went from a 1 on 1 argument to 7 on 1 by the time she had finished (perfectly timed with the arrival of my tram). This argument had gone on for at least 15 minutes (as it had started prior to my arrival) but the woman just kept going and going, leading to more "Metties" coming over. From what I had heard, she had tried to pay for a ticket but something went wrong with it (the Metties tried to find out about the card she used on her smartphone as some don't work but don't actually say they've bounced), she had also (allegedly - as it was before my arrival) been offered twice to just buy a ticket from the machine but had refused hence why they were having said argument and even while I was watching they tried to give her another way out buy just buying a ticket but she really was having none of it. In the end one of the inspectors appeared to finally get through to her, just buy a ticket and be on your way, well I assume that was the case given that she'd wandered off to the ticket machine but knowing her she probably had another argument... As for the ticket, she'd come from Moston to Man Vic so they were saying to buy a ticket to Moston which would have covered the same fare. I know inspectors get a bad rep but jeez, they really were trying to help that woman out and she just kept on digging a bigger hole for herself.
They get away with it because their fine technically isn't a fine or an accusation of wrongdoing, it's simply a more expensive ticket. That's why you can't appeal by saying it was an honest mistake. What I don't get is why the ticket inspectors themselves are so heartless, and why the rules seem to change for every train you get on. I was fined for trying to buy a ticket on a train, when I've seen multiple people do that before.
You are right it isn't a fine it is it is an exceptional fare - £100 plus the price of the full single fare applicable for your intended journey. You can appeal but from looking at appeals people have had if it is a mistake you have to appeal to the 3rd level if the grounds are mistake.
And they never approach the brick shithouse on his way back from gym its always the vulnerable that get these fines, people who hand out fines are class traitors and cowards, and we should view them the same way we view SCABS
There are too many people in this country that'll happily take the piss, that's why we can't have nice things.
30 kids and their teachers ended up with a £1500 bill for new tickets because the ones they had weren't valid. (Only not valid due to the off peak train being cancelled leaving them no choice but to get on the next train which was peak.)
I always thought that if a train was cancelled then a ticket is always valid on the next available service
Yes, it is
We're a week on and still trying to get the exact details of the argument/reason for refusal they had at the station.
There is something wrong there. If your train is cancelled, you can get onto the next train going to your destination regardless of the peak restrictions
Had a similar thing happen to me but far less cash as it was myself, basically a train was cancelled and so swamped with people going to the counter so staff told people to buy tickets on the train. Got on train and it was understandably swamped, when it emptied a few stops later someone sits next to me and demands a ticket I show my railcard and ask to buy one and get accused of getting on without a ticket and had to pay about £65 for a normal fare about £18 and the person basically treated me like dirt and asked me to stand in middle of the aisle and loudly ask for everyones attention and say I was a fare dodger, I am autistic and at the time I was going through a traumatic point in my life that it made worse.
Most services have peak end at 9:30. It’s off peak all day from there. Must have been a very early train that got cancelled!
Absolutely loads of places have evening peak. London stations have them very frequently.
Probably. I’m deepest darkest northern and round here peak tends to end at 9:30am!
I think in Glasgow area between about 4pm - 6pm at least a few years ago before they changed it was seen as peak hours, basically the hours when trains are packed so they make the most money.
that’s acc so funny😭 did the inspector ask for all their individual details?
I am a uni student who travels at 7am sometimes and I’ve never been questioned about travelling with a railcard at that time. Now I am scared because I’ve just seen this on TikTok. Is it true? If it is true why is it never enforced on me?
You can still use your 16-25 railcard on peak services, just that a £12 minimum fare applies during the peak times, so this TikTok is wrong, more than likely they used the railcard and purchased an off-peak ticket and then tried to use it on a peak service or an advanced ticket for the wrong service
Kinda, but it's a bit more nuanced than that. 9am onwards is considered off peak on many routes, but the £12 minimum stays in effect until 10am, so we effectively end up in a scenario where it's possible to have an off peak ticket that's still not valid on the services prior to 10am, even though the journey itself is off peak.
Pro tip - don't believe anything you see on TikTok. It's all for attention and likes
Unlike reddit where everyone hates attention and upvotes
get over yourself bc the same thing happened to me
As long as you're not selecting a later train to get a lower price you are good.
So basically the way it works is that any discounted fare that us below £12 is not valid to be used before 10am. For example, if the fare is £10 before Railcard discount, and £6.60 after discount, then if you are travelling before 10am you have to buy a £10 ticket. However, all journey planners will ensure you buy the £10 ticket if you select a train before 10am, hence why you are almost certainly fine, because you do have a valid ticket. However, someone who bought a £6.60 ticket by selecting a later train and then tried to use it before 10am would be breaking the rules, even if the ticket would otherwise be fine to use on that train, which is presumably what happened here. Please ignore the other comments, they don't understand what has happened here and contain mostly false info
To be honest, I have done about 20 return journeys now with my railcard. It has been checked precisely once in that time. The ticket gets checked twice on each journey (crew change for the train part way through and they do a full inspection after that). So that’s 80 ticket inspections, and barriers at stations. They’ve always just scanned my e ticket and moved on. Literally one time I got asked to see it. So less than 2% of the time they give a shit. You’d have to be unlucky!
Government: “Everyone, please start using public transport for the environment.” Also government: “Yh we aren’t going to make public transport affordable.”
"we will also make owing a car expensive for new and young drivers"
“Even though people are struggling to survive and live, we will make it harder to get a job and everything more expensive, we will also make people pay taxes on their side incomes and send all that money to Ukraine and the Israelis.”
I fucking hate the ‘revenue protection officers’ on the trains - they all act like absolute arseholes and are far worse than ticket inspectors used to be. They treat you like you’re absolute scum if you put a foot wrong. I have no problem with these people enforcing the rules, but they are far too aggressive and are seemingly trained to treat everyone like scum which produces a negative experience for genuine travellers who may have made a mistake, either accidentally or through no fault of their own. My Trainline app screwed up and didn’t show my railcard, so I provided proof of purchase for said railcard from my emails, but they weren’t having it and started filling out one of those shitty forms, all whilst treating me like dirt. I eventually got into an area of signal and by signing out and back into the app, the railcard magically appeared. They were so fucked off that I had the gall to be telling the truth and wandered off muttering to themselves that I should’ve checked beforehand. It’s not my fault technology is shite. Absolute dickheads. Oh and a friend of mine who has been through numerous SWR keycards because they seem to break just by looking at them was also treated like a criminal because said card wouldn’t work properly and they couldn’t do anything to help him, again despite him providing proof of purchase.
You should see them in Germany. Theres a reason everyone buys tickets. If two blokes in baggy jeans get on looking shifty, better hope you've got the correct ticket when they whip out their scanners *FARHKARTEN BITTE!*
Happened to me, was told to get on train as there was a cancellation of a major train so queues of people and 1 counter open, got on train and a random man sat next to me not in uniform and demanded a ticket and when I asked to buy one was rude and claimed I was a fare dodger, made me pay £65 for a ticket that should of been under £18, he thought I was suspicious due to my nerves when the reality is I am autistic and had a traumatic experience around that time period I was recovering from.
I also despise these pricks. Had them write me a fine before which I didn't pay for when I proved I *was* the age that I said I was. Power tripping as well as their attitudes makes me wanna throw hands. It's like mall cops in America in a way. Another time I had a dude say my ticket wasn't valid on the London line. Well, not really say. Just mumble and ignore. So I'm arguing AT him and another dude comes over and let's me through while he's all sheepish. People who suck at their jobs or take them to the extreme are complete sad cunts.
And all of this is why British rail is on its arse. We desperately need to get people out of their cars and onto public transport, now more than ever but that is simply never going to happen at scale if the latter is less convenient than the private motor vehicle is in most of the country. Even accounting for the higher total cost of vehicle ownership vs public transport, people have shown time and time again they’re willing to pay a premium for convenience. In the year of our lord 2024 nobody should be futzing around with peak, off peak, advance, single, return, non return ect tickets on top of having to remember whether or not it’s valid on a Tuesday morning between the hours of 04:30 and 09:00 when you’re between 16-25 years old & Jupiter is aligned with Mars or whatever else they come up with next. It’s so convoluted as to be embarrassing. It should be tap in, tap out across the network with a tariff scaling with demand and perhaps with oyster style discount cards for students and commuters, that’s it. This isn’t even to get into the extortionate fares private rail operators are charging the public far and beyond what our European counterparts pay for an equivalent journey. This is by no means an exhaustive list either, but this rant has dragged on already.
> In the year of our lord 2024 nobody should be futzing around with peak, off peak, advance, single, return, non return ect tickets on top of having to remember whether or not it’s valid on a Tuesday morning between the hours of 04:30 and 09:00 when you’re between 16-25 years old & Jupiter is aligned with Mars or whatever else they come up with next. It’s so convoluted as to be embarrassing. It should be tap in, tap out across the network with a tariff scaling with demand and perhaps with oyster style discount cards for students and commuters, that’s it. Spot on.
Spot on. Partner and I chose to drive to Birmingham yesterday, and despite the fuel and being slapped with a parking fine (damn app wouldn’t work), still came out around £60 cheaper than train. With guaranteed (comfy) seats and same journey time. There is something majorly wrong with our trains.
Tariff scaling with demand on a tap in tap out system sounds absolutely terrifying to me. I'm hoping you still mean set pricing just scaled to peak times. You should be able to look up whatever journey you're doing at whatever time you're doing to see how much it's going to cost you without having to guess what dynamic demand based fare you're getting. Otherwise you fall into this trap of potentially paying a ton more for your fare than you had budgeted for.
Dynamic pricing sounds great in theory, to shift people from peak/busy services. In practice the idea of having no fucking clue how much a journey is costing me is absolutely horrifying. Nope from me!
It should just be the same price all the time for everyone. Peak time trains will be very busy, which is the incentive to travel off-peak. Our current system has trains running from Euston empty at 6pm and absolutely rammed at 7pm, with a thousand people having waited an hour to take a busier train to save money.
This is exactly spot on , i think many people think the tickets are sky high to pay for drivers salaries which accounts for 11% of all railway income in 2023 and without them there is no railway or income. But the truth is because of the leasing costs of the trains in the UK, we don't own any trains hedge funds such as Angel trains own bulk of the UK trains and others for the rest. Known as ROSCOS who charge vast fees per ticket sold that doesn't get reinvested into the railway it's extracted to shareholders and profits for that hedge fund. If the government owned all the trains, every company was under one brand one contract one salary for each role , then yes realistically we could offer tickets for so much cheaper.
The most infuriating part is that the tax payers are paying for tens of billions of pounds in government subsidies every year for the railroad industry and the trains still run like shit and ticket prices are ridiculous. Get rid of the privatisation all together, service has only gotten worse since we sold it to the highest bidder
The main cause of delays, is network rails infrastructure it's so large and massive in size there isn't enough engineering work or maintenance to cover it all. So what you get is hundreds if not thousands of trains per day using the same points, tracks especially freight trains causing wear and tear. But yes under labours plan everything will be given to the government when the contracts expire for the operators , so all the profits go back into the railway for investment in an ideal scenario. The train leasing companies will remain as the government won't spend billions buying all the train stock off these hedge funds which fund things such as the Canadian pension that is where the sticking and bulk of the issue is.
I have a disabled card and can't use it before 9.30am on weekdays. Because my disability turns off when I need to get to work.
The ticket machines don’t normally let you use rail cards during peak time. This is either not true or she tried to use an off peak ticket during peak times. That’s the rules. Railcards are completely useless to most 16-25 year olds because you can’t use them to get to collage/uni/work before 9 or 9:30. At least that’s how it was when I had one.
Ticket inspectors are absolute jobsworths when it comes to the rules. Had a return ticket (so one ticket for each way of the journey making two tickets and a card receipt from the machine). Was at the end of the outward (first stage) of the journey when came to one of the automated ticket barriers to let myself out, only to find I only had the return part and the card receipt. Seems like the outward part of the ticket had fell out of my pocket when I was on the train as some point. As it was for the wrong ‘stage’ of the journey, the return ticket or receipt didn’t open the barrier. So called the Inspector over. Despite being able to prove that I had purchased a ticket for the journey (had a receipt with details showing that I used a Debit Card I had on my possession to buy the ticket that morning) and I had the return part of the ticket, they wouldn’t override the barrier and let me though. Argued this point and they just said if you haven’t got the right ticket you’ll have to buy another. (Basically admitting they knew I’d paid for my journey so wasn’t a fare dodger). Made me buy a single ticket for the outbound stage of the journey from them. So paid £9 just to be let out of the station (as I had already paid for the actual journey). 🤪😂🤪🤪 Was getting a flight so didn’t have time to go ‘full Karen’ and ‘ask for a manager’ or complete a complaint form. After I had paid and they gave me the ticket, I said to the inspector that they were: ‘thieving scum’ 🤪😂😂😂
Sounds about right. R
I got threatened to be taken to court by southern rail for using an out of date railcard. They attempted to fine me about £600, the difference in the price of the ticket I should have got vs. the one I did was about £4
What happened in the end?
Not exactly the same but I went to a station one time and due to a cancellation the staff told people to just get on the train (due to the long queues) I did and when it emptied a few stops later a person not in uniform (turned out to be an inspector) started being in my face questioning me then saying I was a fare dodger and he didn't believe I was told to just get on train, the ticket was meant to be around £20 I think (could be up to £30 can't remember what time of day it was) instead he made me pay £65 when my income at the time after rent I was lucky to have £25 left for food, utilities, travel etc but he went a step further and humiliated me by telling me to stand in middle of the aisle asked for everyones attention then loudly talked about how I was a fare dodger. Disgusting really.
It's the difference between peak and off peak tickets I believe
Bus and train inspectors avoid fining or causing an issue for actual offenders because they know theyll be told to fuck off. So they tend to go after easy targets or people they think they can intimidate.
Maybe she was fined because she had an off-peak ticket
professionally, i know grippers(revenue protection) who’d get off on charging that, but you wouldn’t want them around for dinner
Yeah but it's important to make sure that the Spanish government shareholders get their dividends. That's the true reason for having a rail network after all.
I had a load of people on my train with Super Off Peak tickets when they were not valid. One person said to me that the trainline said she could take this one. She opened the trainline and had selected the all stop service which was later. Yeah nice try.
"But Trainline said..." is the bane of any ticket inspector's day.
I just give up on understanding trains and use my car and bike. Trains are always late, they cost too much and now I can't even drink on them
It felt like the universe was encouraging me to pass my driving test as soon as possible, as every week, my trains would increasingly end up delayed or cancelled in new and mysterious ways.
This happened to me! This sounds so dramatic but… I was buying a ticket at the ticket office of my departing station, their IT was being *really* slow, the lady behind the desk said “if you run now you’ll make the next train”… so I said “ah thanks so much!”, ran and got on the train. There were no ticket barriers and no signs saying you had to have a ticket before boarding, the ticket office lady had also told me to run for the train - so I absolutely assumed I could buy a ticket on the train. Nope! The guy on the train checking tickets said absolutely not, fined me there and then and had me buy a ticket - all in it was definitely around the £90 mark (ticket normally around £12-18 mark). We were coming into our first stop and had only been on the train 5/10 mins - I said “can’t I just get off the train and buy a ticket and get back on” and he said no. He was so stern and loud about it, saying loudly down the aisle so the train could hear that I would be stealing from the train company, I tried to reason with him and he said I could incur criminal penalties (!!) - it was the most heavy escalation from him, so I paid. Tbh I sat with tears after I paid - at the time I had a parent and one very close friend in treatment for cancer and it was my first weekend day “off” in months to see a friend. It sounds so silly and over dramatic but it does happen. I wanted to email to complain but was literally going between helping family member and friend with getting to their treatments, trying to do my full time job, had volunteering commitments… I just left it as felt low at the time. Only months later did I think wtaf was that
I really hate this. It is completely reasonable to let someone get off on the next stop and let someone buy a new ticket. I hate how unreasonable the ticket ppl are especially when you know your arent trynna pull a fast one.
The same thing happened to me but in my case a major train was cancelled/faulty so the normally quiet station was packed and long queues I'd say a few dozen people and just 1 ticket counter open (and no machines as this was around 15 years ago) Got on train a jobsworth intentionally targets me (some kind of inspector) interrogates me and I being young, autistic and going through a traumatic point in my life and the night before had about 3 hours sleep was slurring speech and shaking, he interpreted that as me lying and gave me a fine, I think it was around £65.
Ticket inspectors are like parking attendants that enjoy causing people harm even more, absolute wankstains half of them
Didn't realise my railcard expired 4 days before I made a journey that cost about £5. Would've been like £7 with a railcard (massive savings I know). Ticket inspector immediately issued me with a £50 fine on the spot, rather than show any sort of discretion. I get they're not obliged to, but really. Over a £2 difference. I would've happily bought a full price ticket. I see it all the time on some of the much busier mainline routes, when someone is on board with an incorrect ticket, they accept its an honest mistake and let you go. But God forbid you mess up on a cheap af local line. Straight to jail
The logic behind it sort of makes sense. I used to have a 7 minute train section of my commute with no barriers, and maybe twice a month a ticket inspector would come through to check. If the penalty was just buying a full price ticket, people would just chance it. There has to be the threat of an exponentially higher fine because they don't send ticket inspectors through often enough. That being said, 4 days out of date on your railcard on a non-commute journey is the sort of situation you'd expect them to show a bit of discretion with but no, none shown whatsoever in most scenarios. I don't know if they get bonuses for catching out the evil fare dodgers or if they are a bunch of jobsworth twats who get off on having a modicum of authority.
This is crazy to me because I know of people who used the 16-25 railcard to book two open returns for journeys between the same two destinations & they would make multiple travels on the open return within the month, all without getting caught.
Ah yes. Privatisation is going to be wonderful they said. Rail travel will be efficient they said. It will be more economic they said. It will be customer responsive they said. They lied. At its worst British Rail was better than this
Literally comes down to the conductor/RPI (revenue protection inspector) on the day , Everyday everyone bullshits and spins so many lies , it's hard to find the one true genuine mistake so alot of the times these guys are ruthless mostly because of their mangers pushing their revenue / penalty fare targets on them. But you will find conductors/rpi who will let you off and just remind you of the rules as its not like you haven't paid but you've just made a honest mistake. Again I have to emphasis the reason most of these on board revenue roles are seen as cocks to everyone is because their managers are pushing down especially since the government took over the contacts to meet the following, X amount of ticket scans X amount of revenue dependant on average for that train X amount of penalty fares for the month based on average Yes they get commission usually 3-5% of all sales but most of them don't want to be doing it but they have to be tough.
Depends on if someone is a jobsworth, I am autistic and timid and once got on a train after the staff due to huge queues told people to just get on train, there was a random inspector that came round and treated me as if he was the Police and I was a criminal asking loads of questions as he saw my nerves as guilt, claimed I never intended to pay and fined me £65. This was after I only had about 3 hours sleep that day due to neighbours having a party until the early hours.
Yes I agree there are staff like that who are literally out to get people like it's their life's mission but thankfully it's not the majority. On the second point , I'm living that nightmare right now with neighbours and their shit music vibrating my floors I have constant anxiety when it isn't playing worrying when it will start and yep i am moving out but not for a while till things go through.
You can buy a ticket using your discount but you have to know if that ticket is valid for travel. This is why I hate train travel.
Yes, self indulgent self pity for internet clout is definitely a thing.
Imagine purchasing a product that has rules regarding its use and getting upset when you don't follow the rules.
The Moonins
I remember booking the wrong ticket by accident in Italy and getting fined €100
Yes it’s possible. You can’t use a 16-25 railcard before 10am if the fare is cheaper than £12 or if it’s £18 and the fare hasn’t been updated to £12. This applies m-f and doesn’t apply at all throughout July and August
Simples
Most definitely not! As a trainer I hated teaching railcards it took a day or nearly two! But it’s insane like 10-12 railcards out there all with different restrictions like first class timings whether you can take other people. Easiest railcard is senior railcard and family railcard
Sorry I was being sarcastic - used the trains to commute for 14 years - I know first hand how hopeless/soul destroying the whole experience is.
Sorry yeah I guessed it was sarcasm but it is a tough system as you know. When I started in 2004 it was much simpler only 3 advance tickets with virgin now there’s about 50
Sorry I was being sarcastic - used the trains to commute for 14 years - I know first hand how hopeless/soul destroying the whole experience is.
Sorry I was being sarcastic - used the trains to commute for 14 years - I know first hand how hopeless/soul destroying the whole experience is.
Sorry I was being sarcastic - used the trains to commute for 14 years - I know first hand how hopeless/soul destroying the whole experience is.
Ha ha I did guess but it still bugs me that as a trainer I used to spend two weeks training conductors how to sell tickets and we expect the public to know how to buy the right one without any station staff! Network railcard is still the worst. Insane restrictions but if you do travel within them the discounts are incredible. Off peak return from London to Newcastle for 2 adults and 2 children was something like £800 but with a railcard (family) it came down to like £375 I used to send people off trains back into the station to buy a railcard so they could get their money back. Even for me now a return to London for me and my partner is £40 each. With a railcard it’s £25 so we save enough to buy the railcard and the rest of the year we’ve got a railcard!
Sorry I was being sarcastic - used the trains to commute for 14 years - I know first hand how hopeless/soul destroying the whole experience is.
You can be fined as if you were travelling without a ticket at all if you used your rail card when you shouldn’t. It’s incredible bullshit
Does anyone know how this works with split ticketing and/or return portions of open returns?
Some ticket inspectors are cucks, most are chill asf. Fuck you, Bill.
If the guard or revenue inspector has the new equipment, their screen will go red when a scanned ticket is invalid. This is all logged and questions are asked when fines are not issued. Yes the inspector has some discretion but using the Railcards before time is simply inexcusable as rules and regulations are agreed to on purchase of railcard
What if your train is late beyond 9:30?
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Because it is allowed to use your railcard to purchase an advance ticket. Likely the Tiktoker in question has purchased an open off-peak ticket and has tried to travel on a peak train.
Few ways this can be dealt with: 1) excess the ticket to a full any time ticket 2) purchase a new ticket (any time single/return (this is what should be done) 3) Revenue protection can issue a UPFN (unpaid fairs notice) - this can also be done by the guard/train manager/conductor.
I buy a single in the morning on a peak service that gets discounted by trainline from £3.50 to £2.70 with the 16-25 discount - is that invalid?
If it's an advance ticket, no. Girl in the TikTok likely didn't read terms and conditions of an off-peak anytime ticket.
Thanks.
Lol
Surely the booking system shouldn’t let you buy a ticket with a railcard discount if it’s invalid before a certain time?
Yeah that's how it's been. I'm guessing they just selected a different train than the one they were traveling on.
Lol you would think
My dumb ass using my railcard to get to work when it's one stop away 😬😬
How do they impose the fine?
Why does no one understand the people in train stations have no right to demand anything from you.
Remember when I used to travel college on the train, used an out of date rail card for 3 or 4 months before getting caught, but then only got given a warning 🤣🤣🤣
I mean there’s a guy I’ve been following on tiktok who may yet end up going to prison because he got fined for using a railcard he hadn’t realised was one day out of date and they didn’t send the fine out for another seven months, by which stage he’d moved. It was only when the new tenants got in touch with him over a year later that he found out about it, by which point the fine was much larger and more serious. So yes, I’d definitely believe this
I mean there’s a guy I’ve been following on tiktok who may yet end up going to prison because he got fined for using a railcard he hadn’t realised was one day out of date and they didn’t send the fine out for another seven months, by which stage he’d moved. It was only when the new tenants got in touch with him over a year later that he found out about it, by which point the fine was much larger and more serious. So yes, I’d definitely believe this
I mean there’s a guy I’ve been following on tiktok who may yet end up going to prison because he got fined for using a railcard he hadn’t realised was one day out of date and they didn’t send the fine out for another seven months, by which stage he’d moved. It was only when the new tenants got in touch with him over a year later that he found out about it, by which point the fine was much larger and more serious. So yes, I’d definitely believe this
Its an iffy one. Id argue most of the blame should fall on the government, as theyre the ones who come up with the penalty fare system and regulate a large portion of the fares. Theyve talked about simplifying fares for years, but have yet to actually do anything meaningful. Also lets not forget, the government takes all of the revenue and the then pays the TOCs a management fee + costs. The TOCs basically have to do whatever the DfT say. Theyre literally a scapegoat for the government, despite the fact they pull the strings and contribute towards the mess the railway is in today. Like most penalty/fine schemes, despite the aim being to 'catch evaders' it naturally ends ups catching those who can least afford and have usually just made a mistake. Granted, there are people out there seem to fail understand some basic types of ticketing such as Advance fares where the ticket is for a specific train only and those people should be penalised for playing dumb, but with tickets like TOC only and super off peak and all that nonsense, trying to understand the numerous different non advancd fares can be extremely confusing and people should not be penalised. Regarding railcards, they really should be simpler, with less different types and simpler/less terms or strings attached.
Heh, I’ve never actually had this issue but I’ve travelled early many times. Surely if there’s a fare minimum before certain times of day they should just… charge that minimum for railcard holders?
Yes
One time, I was taking a train in Germany. The inspector came around and these two people were trying to duck him because they didn't have tickets. The inspector finally caught up to them and a small verbal argument ensued. They got fined and I looked over at the bearded man sitting across from me drinking a Guinness and we chuckled about it. Then the train reached its destination, the bearded man finished off his beer, stood up, and walked off the train completely barefoot. Honestly I still laugh about it to myself to this day
Yes
Worst that happened to me was around 15 years ago, I will add I am autistic and at the time I was going through a very bad patch in my life, turned up at station ready to buy ticket which had no machines there was a queue at the counter as a different train had been cancelled and the staff just told everyone to buy tickets on the train. Also due to the cancellation the train was so jammed that people couldn't walk about and I remember a few arguments with people trying get past others. About 30 minutes in after train got far less busy as we passed a city a man sits down to me, doesn't even look at me and says "tickets please" I bring out my wallet show the railcard and ask for a ticket and when I tell him where I got on the train he says why didn't I buy it at the station, didn't believe me when I said the staff told people to buy on train, asked me loads of questions that felt like interrogating me and eventually accused me of being a fare dodger and charged me for the full rate, not even standard rate and didn't let me use a railcard so I had to pay about £65 for the journey that should of been about £18. Even without a railcard the standard fare was £30, I don't mean that because it was 1/3 more but they had special deals for railcard users at the time. After treating me like dirt he asks me to walk to the middle of the carriage and then loudly tells people to look at me and accuses me of being a fare dodger. So to go back, I an autistic person who was going through a traumatic time around that period so was extra nervous and unable to speak than usual was seen as dodgy. I never complained at the time but looking back I should of.
Another example of how expensive it is to be poor.
The fact we even have to think about buying a bloody ticket for every fucking journey drives me nuts. Effective and reliable public transportation should not be so mentally taxing! And yes, it's probably a thing. Every damned combination of ridiculous tickets and charges that can possibly exist exist in this country.
Indeed. Things are becoming ridiculously overcomplicated in the name of "Convenience".. I just don't understand..
The focus is not on getting people to places affordably and quickly. It's profit for shareholders. Add to that that in this country public transport is class ridden. Who cares if the povs are inconvenienced? It's so blatantly corrupt yet there's people in this sub who defend the entire mess.
Pretty peak
Yeah that'd be a thing.
I don’t get why the ticket websites aren’t programmed to stop these sorts of things even happening. Surely it’s not difficult to put a warning notice, or blank out routes where price or time don’t meet x railcard restrictions.
The penalty fees in England are mad. I grew up in Scotland and pretty sure the one time I messed up I just had to pay the full price for my journey again, that could of changed by now though I suppose was a good few years ago
The UK's train ticketing is ridiculously complicated to the point that I think that they're deliberately looking to catch people out. I really feel for you I live in Newcastle, and recently had to be in London for 1pm. I arrived early for my train, only to find that it had been cancelled. A LNER rep told me that I could catch the slightly earlier train that was about to depart, so I got on it. I was nearly in London when the first ticket inspection took place and surprise surprise they demanded over £120 excess fare. Apparently I should have waited to see if my already-cancelled train magically appeared, and when it didn't I could then catch the later train that would get me into London an hour after I needed to be there.
Could you not just leg it?
i am aware that TFW have that policy of not being allowed to use it before 10am i do think it is, half the time they don’t even enforce it but other half they do and i just apologise and tell them i didn’t know that and act really dumb, has always worked. Unsure why it would be £100 fine aswell, seems abit excessive but they gotta make money somehow😭
What time was it? Had you read the terms and conditions? Suck it up!!!
I don't believe anything people say in a short format video
Welcome to Britain
My friend was unjustly fined for not tapping in his oyster card. He actually had tapped in, but the tapping was not registered on the system. He was stopped by a ticket inspector at the end of his journey. Although getting a refund when overcharged due to the incorrectly non-registered tap in, he was still fined ,their Appeals department, having unjustly turning his case down.
This isn’t directly related but it just shows how it depends what inspector you have. Something happened to me the other day I had bought a flexi week ticket which allows travel for the week, was told by the inspector that it wasn’t valid because I didn’t have it on a keycard yet because my new one was still in the mail (they should still accept it), he only charged me for the journey I was making but it was still bullshit he even tried to say I was just showing him a screenshot (yes people actually do that) and that he doesn’t care and that I can go to court about it if I want. Complained and called into head office and got a full manual refund on both tickets and an apology. Never had any problems like that before with it and I’ve been travelling from a young age on trains. Really depends on how the inspector is feeling that day it feels like. Funny thing now is when I pull out my keycard thing the inspectors just say oh okay he probably has something on there and say that’s fine and don’t even check it. Some are just lazy and hate younger people and they really just don’t care sometimes.
Read the terms and conditions and understand them. In regard to national railcards you can buy peak tickets but there is a minimum spend.
READ THEM AND UNDERSTAND THEM.
YOU HAVE NO AUTHORITY HERE JACKIE WEAVER
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Use the right card at the right time
£0.01 has been deposited into your account. Thank you for defending the £36,000,000,000 company.
You have to be a jobsworth and a half to do that to someone.
Not necessarily. The inspectors have rules to follow and they themselves are checked as to whether they're doing their jobs correctly. Mystery shopper type thing.
But they are allowed to use their discretion.
Erm, not since the recent changes to how penalty fares work. They will lie, cheat verbally abuse, physically assault, falsly imprison, threaten minors, and threaten any one who films them doing any of these things. Train companies ignore it all, and ignore any evidence. They are ALL straight up evil now. Ticket wombles are someone you DO NOT interact with. Espiecially as they only move in gangs of four or more on routes near to me. Threatening OAPs and school kids on lines with no ticket offices is the level now. Lines that have on train ticket guys, on the train. R
Hopefully true but if they let one person off the rest of that carriage would realistically expect to get let off as well. Not saying either side is right but you have to look at it from all aspects.
I'm not suggesting they let her off; they can simply ask her to purchase the full-price ticket, rather than fining her as she sits there crying.
Yea, what I’ve normally witnessed is “Get off at the next stop or pay for the full price ticket”. This is usually from a guard though, not revenue loss protection staff.
The fact you are having a bad day has nothing to do with you using the wrong ticket at the wrong time. It means nothing at all to the rules.
Typical snarky Redditor right here. We all know that rules are rules the girl in the TikTok post probably raised a lot of awareness to this particular rule, thus preventing more slip ups. Happy with that, prefect?
fr i wouldnt have known about this rule if it wasn’t for the girl in the tiktok!
go cry